Best Ways To Use Your Company Wiki - The Writers For Hire

BEST WAYS TO USE YOUR COMPANY WIKI For some, the term wiki conjures up images of an online encyclopedia. For others their first thought is of leaked documents, exposed government secrets, and confidential information. The word itself is actually a Hawaiian term that simply means quick. But, if you have a business with offices in multiple locations, or you utilize remote workers, you should get to know the wiki on a more personal level. Wikis are a valuable communication tool that are relatively easy to set up. Of course, you probably use several forms of communication within your company already. Why do you need another? But wikis are not just another portal for corporate communication, yet one more inbox for you to check. In fact, they are quite a lot more, and might be the solution for the limitations inherent to some of the tools you are probably using now: For Example: Websites Websites are mostly for the benefit of your customer. They are outward facing, and function primarily as an arm of your marketing department. Intranet or Internal Website This tool is inward facing—it speaks to your employees—but the information is usually non-collaborative. Blogs Blogs are an example of one-direction or hierarchical communication. Information goes down, but it is not passed back up. They also can be time-consuming and costly from a payroll perspective. Email Email is the most widely used method of communication in most offices, which means it can be overwhelming. Time-sensitive and urgent messages go unnoticed in clogged inboxes. Wikis distinguish themselves from these other forms of communication because they take the best qualities of the above tools and merge them into one simple platform. With only four basic operations: edit, write, link, and save—wikis are easy to use. They are also searchable, dynamic (changeable), collaborative (multiple users can contribute to the conversation) and can include hyperlinks to other relevant pages both within the wiki, and out to the internet. For these reasons, wikis have become the go-to communication solution for many businesses. But what are the best ways to use your company wiki? Some of the most common ways to use a wiki: Knowledge Banks Many companies are now using wikis as the place to store and access vital corporate documents such as forms, company processes, and employee handbooks. The reason they are turning, more and more, away from the intranet and toward the wiki is because of the relative ease and distributive quality of updating information. These features help keep the knowledge bank relevant with the most current versions and processes. Onboarding New Employees Wikis can be a valuable tool in onboarding new employees faster and easier. Keeping large files like the employee handbook and policies and procedures manuals within the knowledge bank saves time and resources that would otherwise be used for printing. Beyond that, however, wikis can link out to other training tools such as videos and quizzes for tracking progress, they can include invitations for collaboration, as well as provide for real-time responses from supervisors and corporate trainers, even if off-site. FAQs Rather than having a printed or digital copy of an FAQ sheet, the wiki FAQ functions more like an ongoing conversation. Both questions and answers can be frequently updated, as often as is necessary, with limited waste of time and other resources. Project Management Communication Central When wikis are used as the main hub for project management communication, they are a collaborative space to collect ideas, track progress, and provide visible updates for the entire team. Each team member contributes to the conversation and stays current, all without clogging up email inboxes. Brain Trust for Key Employee Essential Information When key employees are promoted from within, or move on to external career opportunities, their job-specific knowledge does not have to leave with them. Many companies are using an internal wiki as an easily updateable brain trust for those key employees to leave behind valuable information for the next person who fills the role. This makes for faster assimilation for the new employee, even if an outside hire, because they do not have to start from ground zero. They have a job-specific knowledge bank to draw from beginning on day #1. Each of these uses are time-saving, email box unclogging, team project friendly ideas, that make using wikis a good choice over blogs, emails, and even intranets. In many instances, all of the other platforms can be completely replaced with one combined purpose wiki, eliminating clutter, chaos, and miscommunication. Some companies out there are getting even more creative, and have found outside-of-the-box ways to use their internal wiki in new ways for new reasons. Creative Uses for Wikis: Ongoing Corporate Training Some companies are using their internal wiki quite extensively for ongoing corporate training. Beyond the basics of onboarding for new employees, the classroom applications for wikis are almost unlimited. Wikis are so well organized and easy to navigate; very little direction is needed to get students started. Training can be accessed from any location around the world, and from any web or mobile device. Pages as simple as a glossary of terms, to as complex as 3D architectural renderings, can be added without the cost and hassle of printing and are available to all attendees. Students also have the ability to contribute to and modify the content, which opens up the classroom to discussion and teambuilding exercises. Once the training is over, the wiki can be used for tests, assessments, course reviews, links to other relevant sites, and follow-up beyond the classroom. Customer Feedback Service industry and related businesses are using wikis to collect real-time customer reviews and feedback. By adding an outward facing portal, businesses can conduct on-the-spot assessments and instantly see how their customers are responding. Using a wiki eliminates the need for an outside application or an internal web development project, so the set-up is quick and easy. This can be especially helpful during promotions, or when trying out new and experimental products or services. Managers can see the results immediately, and can make alterations on the fly, if necessary. Restaurant Staff Perhaps the most creative use for an internal wiki that we found was the example of a high-end restaurant who is utilizing theirs in the kitchen. Using the wiki platform, a real-time updated kitchen inventory, much like a running grocery list, is accessible and modifiable by the entire staff. If a line chef runs out of a particular ingredient, or the hostess notices a particular dish is extremely popular that day, the wiki is updated and the manager knows immediately. They are also using it as a database for the Master Chef’s unique and specialty recipes. When alterations and substitutions are made, no matter the daily or weekly specials, the kitchen staff always stays informed. While there may be software packages available that would provide many of these same functions, the restaurant chose to use this simple to use and mostly free option that works really well. As a communication tool, the wiki really stands alone in its versatility. Wikis can help eliminate unnecessary email while still keeping remote employees and multiple offices updated on company news. They can be used as a repository for voluminous mostly static documents, as well as a hub for idea-sharing and team-project management. But what really sets the wiki apart from other tools, including an intranet or even custom software, is that they are easy to set up, easy to use, customizable to your company’s needs, accessible from any location, and extremely cost-efficient. Are you using an internal wiki in your business? If so, what are some of the best ways to use your company wiki that you’ve discovered?

Communication models

Communication models Abstract Organizations have been in existence ever since humanity came into existence. Within these organizations, there has been a need for communications plans and proper organizations models so that there is a proper and smooth operation. Human beings do communicate differently and these in turn affects organizational operations, as they are the people who make up these organizations.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on Communication models specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There have been several ways identified for human communications by experts in this field. Communication is a field that is so wide in relation to other sectors. Therefore, people have proposed the rise of the many models ever since the time of Aristotle to present times. As wide as it is, it includes the various disciplines such as journalism, anthropology, rhetoric, and psychology amongst many others. This paper will tend to look into one of these very many communications model and one organizational model analyzing them side by side to come up with various weaknesses and problems that might arise from the use of such a communications model. The main analysis style will be the AMA 8-step process. Introduction Communication amongst human beings is particularly valuable, and understanding of the same is supposed to be in the priorities of organizations that intend to remain relevant in the market. Human communication is concerned with the conveyance of information from one source to the other, and this rule underscores the reason why the field has various models that look at it from different perspectives (Littlejohn, Foss, 2008, p. 69). The entire process, however, aims at initiating and inculcating development amongst the people involved. As there are unusually many organizations in existence, so there are so many organizational models in existence, all of which serve different organizations’ various roles and o bjectives. Since human beings form an organization, there is a need to build a strong base of faithful organization members, a fact that is elusive without proper communication (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009, p. 88). Hence, the need for any organization that needs to thrive, to identify with one model of communication that acts, as a guide to all the organization’s communications needs is paramount.Advertising Looking for term paper on communication strategies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Some communication models will look at communication from the perspective of information a receiver needs to communicate, whereas other will give importance to the fact that the sender initiates the process and thus, the person needing the communication the most. Some scholars in defining the term human communications have used this view. A famous definition of communication existed that many people have taken to use , because of its ease and the extent to which it summarizes the occurrences in a communication process. This supposition underscores the definition of communication simply as being â€Å"who says what, where, when, to who, through what channel or medium, and with what purpose or intention† (Lasswell, Lerner, Pool, 1952, p. 12). Therefore, communication models vary depending on the situation and place where the need to communicate do arise. However, all these models will narrow down to a simple model of communication that has the sender conveying information to the receiver as is seen in the figure below of a Simple communication’s model (Foulger, 2004, p.45). Figure 1.0 There have been remarkably many communication models in use, some of which were developed in the 20th century and others that are continually being developed on a day-by-day basis the source being the different organizational performance. This has seen the move and transformation of the way organizati ons communicate, from the ancient egalitarianism to the current Darwinism that focuses on the fact that people do not have equal access and rights to economic, political, and social aspects of the world. Communications scientists who have their roots in the propagandas studied amongst the mass media in the 20th centuries identify themselves mostly with the transmission model of communication (Miller, 2005, p. 87). Organizations also need to develop a model that will govern its operations under all circumstances, because this model is also, what will guide the leadership and operational activities of any organization. This paper will look at the Shannon Communication model and the Matrix organizational structure to evaluate the problems that might arise in the company or organization that adopts the same.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on Communication models specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Shannon Communicationà ¢â‚¬â„¢s model Shannon communication model is a model of communication, developed back in 1948. People have largely regarded it as the basis for all the other modern communication models. It denotes a model that has thrived so much to eliminate so many unimportant components of the communication’s process leaving only what it considers key to the communications process (Shannon, 1948, p.382). This model has been considered successful by the fact that it does not only point out why communication happens, but also goes ahead to point at some of the things that lead to communication failures. One can summarize the entire model as seen below. Figure 1.1: Shannon communications model (Shannon, 1948) To establish the problems associated with Shannon’s communication model, this paper will look at a typical organization that uses the organizational model below. This model of the organization is where all information distributed within the organization aims at releasing the tr uth. In all levels, there are controls and checks to ensure the clearing, of all information released, of suspicion and emerge to be the best and be in the best interest of the organization. Figure 1.2: Organizational model (Severin Tankard, 2009, p.96).Advertising Looking for term paper on communication strategies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Problems The analysis of the problems associated with this form of communication model and organization model will follow the AMA 8-step process. Step 1: The discovery step- in this step, there are the salient facts that are associated with Shannon Communication’s model, as identified these above. However, it is necessary to note that, organizations are moving from the era where everybody will stand out as equal to an era talked about by Darwin: people receiving resources and economic exposures according to their individual ability. This then leads us to step two. Step 2: Many see Shannon’s model not just as a communication’s model, but also as the process of conveyance of information from the source to the receiver. A problem would arise, mainly because the model puts emphasis on the need of the sender to push message to the receiver. This can lead to some unforeseen problems. Practically, users of information have been found to be active not passive; hence, t hey choose the information they need as is the case elaborated by the uses and gratification theory of communication. Therefore, this model sees that information transmission from the sender to the receiver is the key role of the communications medium or channel. This model again sees communication as being direct and that it always occurs in one direction, a situation that is not the case in real life. Step 3: Analysis-The first problem that might arise is miscommunication if the organization relies fully on Shannon’s communications model. This is because whereas the model suggests that the sender should compel the receiver of the information to receive information, the receivers are always active people. By forcing the reception of the message, the sender may rest thinking that the message was decoded as he thought whereas, in the real sense, coercion might have led to lack of communication. Therefore, this scenario can lead to miscommunication and largely, communicationâ⠂¬â„¢s breakdown (Bell Smith, 1999, p. 124). The next possible problem would be wrong communications feedback. The intention of communication is always to obtain feedback: positive or negative. However, the assumption of this model that communication is direct and always occurs one way would mean that the sender would not pay attention to the issues raised by the receiver of a message since their role is to receive only. Therefore, in essence the communication process will qualify as ineffective. Another possible problem that would arise from the use of this model in an organization is that the model will act as a barrier to communication. It is fixed. In addition, it does not allow room for healthy communication. This would make an organization fail to execute its planned objectives and goals. Step 4: Possible Solutions-The problems that do arise out of the use of Shannon’s communication model can be solved by the realization that communications is not a one thing but a two -way issue. Therefore, while applying the Shannon’s communication model, the user (communicators) should be aware of the fact that both the dispatcher and the beneficiary lie within the brackets of the process and are active rather than passive participants. Therefore, they should receive the due importance they deserve. In addition, the users should be aware that there is communication without feedback; hence, it is not unidirectional, and users should pay attention to both facts. Step 5: Solution evaluation-The solution that can be lasting to the problems is the use of an amalgamation of two or three communications models. This is because whereas one may have a loophole, the other one acts as a check and balance and a solution to the other model’s problems. Step 6: Decision-making-The best solution to this problem is to use it hand in hand with the contemporary communication’s model that gives importance to communication as being complete only with the attainm ent of feedback. This step, when used with the Shannon’s model, will ensure perfect communications since all aspects of a communication’s process will receive maximum care. Step 7: Execution To ensure this solution works, the people within an organization should go through all the components of a communication process. Moreover, they should be aware of the importance of each aspect. These should be the sender, message, receiver, barriers (noise), channel (medium) and the feedback. In the implementation stage, one has to follow all guidelines to ensure that the process gives the desired results. The participants should be well informed for precision purposes. Step 8: Measurement-The suggested organizational model proposes a situation where all employees take part in the communication of truthful messages. The success of the use of the suggested solution will come out through monitoring performance and gauging the level of cooperation between the organization’s e mployees. This step is decidedly crucial because measuring and monitoring of performance underlines the true progress of any activity. Conclusion The use of any communication model is in itself not a solution to the organizational communication needs. Proper understanding and implementation facilitate the success of any communication model that a company decides to use. Moreover, the organizational model also plays a critical role in deciding the success of the model. In other words, organizations should choose communication models that fit into the organizational model. This understanding, therefore, calls for organizations to use models interchangeably to ensure they succeed. Applying different models allow management to decide on the communication model that fits a given organization best and through adopting the best model; the organization will achieve its objectives. References Bell, A., Smith, D. (1999). Management Communication. New Jersey: John Wiley Sons, Inc. Foulger, D . (2004). Models of the Communication Process. Retrieved from http://davis.foulger.info/research/unifiedModelOfCommunication.htm Lasswell, H., Lerner, D., Pool, I. (1952). The comparative study of symbols: an  Introduction. California: Stanford University Press. Littlejohn, S., Foss, K. (2008). Theories of human communication. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Miller, F., Vandome, A., McBrewster, J. (2009). Communication Theory. Mauritius: VDM Publishing House Ltd. Miller, K. (2005). Communication Theories: Perspectives, Processes, and  Contexts. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Severin, W., Tankard, J. (2009). Communication theories: origins, methods, and uses in the Mass media. Boston: Addison Wesley Longman. Shannon, A. (1948). Mathematical Theory of Communication. Bell System  Technical Journal, 27(6), 379-656.